DORSET Police has said it will continue to work on improving representation of ethnic minorities within the force's ranks, after it was revealed that there were just two black police officers serving in Dorset.

People from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds in Dorset are underrepresented in their police force, new figures reveal.

Home Office data shows there were 21 BAME officers in Dorset Police at the end of March – up from 20 the previous year and accounting for 18.2 per 1,000 officers whose ethnicity was recorded.

But a recent analysis by the Government Statistical Service shows that 31.4 per 1,000 of the local population is BAME.

In Dorset, there were two black officers in March – accounting for 1.7 per 1,000 officers. This still underrepresents the community, as black people make up 2.6 per 1,000 of the population.

A Dorset Police spokesperson said: "Having a workforce that reflects the diverse nature of the communities we serve is of paramount importance to us. In order to achieve this we have invested in our Positive Action strategy with the aim to improve the workforce representation of Dorset Police, using positive action measures and continuing to build an inclusive culture where diversity and difference is celebrated.

"We are seeing progress across the wider inclusion agenda, with a specific focus on areas such as neurodiversity. We are undertaking a range of process improvements which will benefit our force as a whole. Some of these are already in place, such as lowering the age of eligibility for police officer recruitment to 17 (but they must be 18 to start the role), the removal of driving licence requirements for Special Constables, and the overall greater use of technology enabling us to engage across the whole community. We also ensure we go out into the community to talk to people who would not necessarily have considered the police as a natural career choice to inform them of the variety of roles available across our Force.

"Early indicators from these are showing an increasing interest from our BAME communities and we are working closely with these individuals to provide bespoke support."

Across all 43 police forces, BAME officers accounted for 73.0 in 1,000 officers who stated their ethnicity, an increase from 69.4 the previous year and 46.2 in 2010.

But this still underrepresents those communities, with BAME people making up 145.2 per 1,000 of England and Wales’s population, according to mid-2016 estimates.

Across all police forces in England and Wales, 12.6 per 1,000 officers were black, while the figure for the population stood at 33.7.

Rates were calculated using police force area population estimates from mid-2016 – the latest year with an ethnicity breakdown.

Visit www.dorset.police.uk/recruitment/positive-action/ to find out more about support available.